Editors, Vineyard Gazette;

In April of 2019, I was fortunate to attend Yoga Reaches Out, a fundraiser for Boston Children’s Hospital. It was a breathtakingly beautiful day of yoga at the Gillette Stadium field house.

I was among hundreds of people practicing together for a good cause. When we concluded the day with a collective ohm, I thought we might change childhood illness just with our shared intention of healing.

I brought my bright orange yoga mat that day and as the day wore on, my yoga mat, sitting on artificial turf, and perhaps the best in the country as this was the fieldhouse of the Patriots, became covered in little black specks from the artificial grass. I believe it was from the recycled tires that held the whole thing in place. It stuck to my white T-shirt, it was in my socks, and throughout the day I kept rubbing the tiny black pieces of plastic off my mat and it kept returning. It was ever present and I thought I might breathe it in as I practiced.

When I returned to the Vineyard, I took a shower. I watched as the little black specks of turf debris circled the shower drain.

I am no scientist, but those little black specks traveled home with me from Foxborough and became part of our Island ecosystem that day. This is why I am against the turf field. As a resident and taxpayer of Oak Bluffs, I agree with the Oak Bluffs Planning Board. Please stop the turf field.

Mary Holmes

Oak Bluffs